The present invention relates generally to drying racks, and more particularly to adjustable plastic storage bag dryers.
Plastic storage bags are available in varying sizes and thicknesses, and are widely employed for multiple uses. After use they are most usually discarded, but with the recent emphasis on reduction in solid waste burden, it has become increasingly popular to wash and/or rinse them for reuse. However, after washing, otherwise becoming wet on the inside, the sides of the bags tend to stick together, thereby rendering the evaporation of the remaining water a slow and unreliable process.
Turning bags inside-out improves the drying process, but may damage the ends of surfaces used for resealing the storage bags, rendering them useless. Moreover, inks or dyes used to mark the outside surfaces of the bags may then transfer from one surface to another.
Hanging open bags on commercially-available multiple peg racks does not improve the drying process significantly, since a single peg does not maintain the bag in a substantially open position, and non-adjustable, multiple-peg designs do not effectively accommodate the numerous plastic bag shapes and sizes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,076 for "Magnetically Suspended Plastic Bag Dryer," which issued to Alan S. North and Charles K. Neifeld on Apr. 7, 1992, the inventors describe a magnetically suspended rack for drying plastic bags consisting of a magnet attached to a supporting structure which is constructed as a sphere created by two hoops, one inside the other, and attached by rivets so that the inner hoop can rotate on an axis inside the outer hoop. The invention described is effective in maintaining the plastic bags in an open position for drying. However, only bags having larger dimensions than the diameter of the hoops can be accommodated. Moreover, although flat when the two hoops are coplanar, the device maintains a sizable storage dimension.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for assisting the air drying process for water-impermeable and semi-permeable storage bags.
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for assisting the air drying process for water-impermeable and semi-permeable storage bags which may be adjusted to accommodate bags having various sizes and shapes.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for assisting the air drying process for water-impermeable and semi-permeable storage bags which may be collapsed for compact storage.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.